Peter Zarkadas and Paula Bradley, members of Twangbusters, perform during Troy Pig Out 2013.
J.S. CARRAS — THE RECORD FILE PHOTO

TROY >> What a Christmas present!

At 8 a.m. Dec. 18, 2013, drummer Mateo Vosganian got an email announcing that his hard-rock band Wild Adriatic had one of their songs on Rolling Stone’s daily download.

“I called everyone,” he said, “woke everyone up and started shouting about it. It was awesome.”

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The Queensbury group will headline the first of Troy’s two-day Pig Out celebration of barbecue and bands at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Mateo and vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Travis Gray have known each other since kindergarten and played together since high school. They met bass player Rich Derbyshire in high school, but he didn’t complete the current power trio lineup until 2011. In the meantime, Mateo earned a degree in TV/film production and moved to Los Angeles and Travis moved to Nashville.

But the old saying about you can never find your fortune by coming home again proved false for these three guys.

“I moved out there to Los Angeles to get a job with my college degree,” Mateo said, “but quickly realized that music is and has always been my passion, so I moved back for that.”

It worked. The Rolling Stone pick “Woe” is simple, straight-ahead rock with hard driving drums and Foreigner-like guitar work that occasionally breaks through the mix like a water balloon splashing on the Daytona Speedway.

The band’s Facebook page proclaims “10 out of 10 Dads approve of this rock and roll band.” Putnam Den’s pitch on the band compares them to Led Zeppelin.

“We obviously have always loved Led Zeppelin,” Mateo said, “but I don’t think we come too close to sounding like them.”

As far as the comment about 10 out of 10 dads, Mateo says his dad is living vicariously through him.

“My dad would have loved to be a drummer, would have loved to have toured and been on radio or had any sort of career in music, but he went in a different direction and got a job in sales, got a house, a mortgage, kids and all that jazz very young,” he said.

Dad gave Mateo the green light to “throw caution to the wind” and do what he loves to do which is play in a rock and roll band.

The music on “Big Suspicious,” their first full album released in January, is a tour de force with all original material that’s too good to be labelled retro, but fans of classic rock bands like Bad Company and Faces will enjoy how the group has tweaked simple, straight-ahead hard-rock with touches of Philly and Memphis soul.

Relix magazine calls them “flawlessly tight with infectious melodies and tons of soul.” Even USA Today singled Wild Adriatic out as “an act to get behind.”

“Big Suspicious” was produced and engineered by Travis in his home studio. He has seven years’ experience producing other area acts like Mr. S, but he was obviously inspired about turning the dials for his own band.

“Every week I’d come back to practice,” Mateo said, “and Travis would have spent hours reading about something or looking up how Led Zeppelin did their drum mic-ing or how we can make our drums sound better.”

The group played five dates at America’s premiere music showcase South By Southwest this spring and are touring Europe later this year. Although they each look like they come from totally different musical cultures, together the power trio clicks and turns heads.

“We were just in a shopping mall last tour, and women followed us around that mall and asked us if we were famous,” he said. “We were dressed in pants and shirts, just normal dudes. Maybe our pants are a little tighter than the normal guy, but not too much. We do have an Afro in the band.”

Troy Pig Out has music and barbecue all day Saturday and into Sunday afternoon. Henry’s Rifle opens Saturday at 11 a.m., followed by Chris Dukes Band at 1 p.m., The Getdown at 3 p.m., Joe Lowry Second Mile Blues Band at 5 p.m. and concluding with Wild Adriatic at 7 p.m.

Sunday’s lineup includes Dan Johnson at 11 a.m., Jim Graham Band at 1 p.m. and Chelsea Cavanaugh at 3 p.m.